E.D.I.A. education
Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility for Educators
USER GUIDE
Welcome to the user guide for the Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility (E.D.I.A.) website!
As a teacher, you are the facilitator and main influencer in your classrooms which are, in essence, micro-societies.
The challenge is that you and your students will arrive with different beliefs including racial and cultural prejudices that may be transmitted from family members, peers, community, and popular culture.
WHO: The intended audience is middle school teachers.
WHERE: British Columbia, and the principles can be applied in any province, state or country.
As a proof of concept, information is introductory and not all applications within the site will be active.
The current BC Curriculum Guide (B.C.C.G.) lists the following three core competencies as goals for student learning:
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Communication
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Thinking
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Personal and Social
Within the Personal and Social core competency is the goal to help each of your students to develop a “Positive Personal and Cultural Identity.” The three facets of positive personal and cultural identity articulated in the B.C.C.G. are:
"Understanding relationships and cultural contexts"
“Identifying personal strengths and abilities"
“Recognizing personal values and choices"
This website will support you to engage your students in developing a Positive Personal and Cultural Identity by helping you to do the same.
The purpose of this site is to help you to become a teacher with self-awareness, and enough introductory E.D.I.A. knowledge to become more confident in helping your students in their journeys.
This information is valuable whether you are teaching math, social studies, science or other subjects, and applies to your interactions outside of the educational domain as well.
We hope that this introductory information inspires you to continue your research after using the site to learn more about all of the challenges and opportunities to strategize increasing equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility in your teaching practice and learning spaces.
The digital spaces of inquiry you are creating in your classroom are just as important as the physical, social and emotional spaces. We ask you to consider the digital resources you share with your students through the E.D.I.A lens as well as the digital resources you create.
“Pedagogy is a teaching and learning relationship that creates the potential for building learning conditions leading to full and equitable social participation” (New London Group, 1996).
We will provide you with foundational information on the dimensions of E.D.I.A., and explore the role of bias, understanding positionality, and the concepts of power and privilege. We understand that navigating this complex landscape can be challenging, especially for those who are new to it. However, we believe this knowledge is a critical ingredient in helping you in creating inclusive learning environments.
It is crucial to understand the importance of creating spaces that cater to the needs of all students regardless of abilities, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality, or socio-economic status.
Although some of our web pages are aligned with didactic, instructivist pedagogy where we are providing the information to you with no engagement (Crosslin, 2021), we also have designed an activity related to the theory of constructivism as informed by Jean Piaget’s cognitive theory and the closely related theory of social constructivism (Schunk, 2012, p 235, 239). We do this through the Forum (gestured to) and Video Quiz, where you will be able to engage with others to share your experiences and ask questions.
This site is not meant to be a source of lesson plans for teaching the core competencies of the B.C.C.G.
This site also does not teach educational theories as there are many resources for finding this information already available in texts and online.
REQUIREMENTS: This site is best viewed on a computer, laptop, or tablet. The site has not been optimized for viewing on a smartphone. Access to high speed internet service is ideal, to eliminate the buffering of audio or videos.
The website was created using Wix and the video quiz assessment was created using Kaltura and narrated using Murf AI.
NAVIGATION: There are two types of menus. At the top is a site-wide menu for navigating to different locations, and on some pages where there may be a larger amount of reading, we have instituted page menus on the right of the screen to allow you to jump between sections.
This site was designed with the following accessibility features:
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All text is 16 points or higher and with sufficient colour differentiation to the background to support reading with for persons with vision impairment
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Spaces between letters and between lines of text are increased to support ease of reading with for persons with vision impairment
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Colour is not used to convey information on graphs or charts for those experiencing colour blindness or low vision
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Videos are captioned for the H.O.H (Hard of Hearing) and Deaf Communities
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Transcripts are provided for the use of screen reading technologies for persons with a reading or vision impairment, and wherever possible the user will be able to stay on the same web page
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Correct headings are used
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Visual images that are for decorative purposes do not contain alt text.
LINKS
As this is a free website, links we include to other websites will navigate you off this site.
SCREEN READING
For people who use screen reading technology we recommend using Google Chrome as the primary browser and the ChromeVox Options Reader Extension. To be taken to this external web page click ChromeVox Options Screen Reader Extension.
TRANSCRIPTS AND AUDIO RECORDING
Otter A.I. is an app that both records audio and creates a transcription. The accuracy of the transcriptions is good but not 100% accurate. These transcriptions can be exported.
CAPTIONS
Captions can be enabled on any YouTube videos that were created allowing for captions. To turn captions on, click on the CC button at the bottom of the screen. To view transcripts (if available), click on the three dots at the bottom right beside the ‘Share’ icon and you will be able to access the transcript to the right of the video.
FIRST STOP - E.D.I.A. FOUNDATIONS
The E.D.I.A FOUNDATIONS web page is one of the keys to modelling inclusive practices. It introduces seven topics in the E.D.I.A. space to get you started on your journey. Discourse on the topics change and evolve, particularly in the digital space as new technologies are adopted in teaching and learning.
Krownapple & Cobb (2019) promote "brave spaces" where we can can embrace the discomfort, risks, and struggles that we might feel when learning that we can lessen our participation in systems that create humiliation and inequity (Ch. 7).
This sections included on this page include the following topics:
Land Acknowledgement
This section is about the importance of acknowledging the traditional lands and territories of the Indigenous peoples of Canada and provides suggestions for how to create authentic land acknowledgements and indigenize learning.
Power, Privilege, and Bias
This section will help you to become more aware of your position in relation to your students, and how to be intentional in your interactions with them.
Positionality
This section will help you to become intentionally aware of the multiple identities that you inhabit, so that you can become more aware of the multiple identities that your students may inhabit.
Tips for Inclusive Language in the Classroom
This section will support you in creating culturally safe environments in your classroom for your students and become more aware of the language that you use that might assume that your students inhabit the same community and cultural spaces as you do.
Ableism and Universal Design for Learning
This section will introduce the common barriers that students with diversities encounter and touch on the topic of Universal Design for Learning.
Racism and Discrimination
This section provides definitions of racism and discrimination and some simple actions you can take to address these in the classroom.
Gender and Sexuality 101
This section describes how the concepts of gender and sexuality are interwoven and impact each other. It will address mindfulness of the curriculum you are using and being open to discussions in the classroom on the topic.
Second Stop:The Forum
Our COMMUNITY FORUM is gestured to. It is meant to be a safe and supportive space where you can ask questions, share ideas, and learn from each other. We understand teachers often feel isolated from their colleagues within the physical limitations of their schools. This isolation extends further into the separation from peers working in different schools, school systems, cities, and countries. We believe that E.D.I.A. is a collaborative process that involves ongoing learning and engagement. As such, we encourage you to connect with other educators and share your insights, challenges, and successes.
Your personal information is not shared or sold and is completely confidential. The forum is moderated by the creators of the site, and is prefaced with community guidelines for respectful dialogue. Our hope is that the Forum will lead to the development of communities of practice in the real world.
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Go to the forum page on the E.D.I.A website.
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Click on the "Login" button located at the top right-hand side of the page.
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Fill in the required fields such as your name, email address, and password. If you prefer not to provide your personal name, you can create a different user name.
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Follow the prompts to complete your registration. You may need to verify your email address by clicking on a link sent to your email.
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Once you have completed the registration process, you can sign in with your new account and start leaving comments as a community member on the forum by clicking on the “create a new post button”.
Once you have registered, navigate to the EDIA forum.
You will see two main sections and sub-categories:
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E.D.I.A Educator Discussion
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E.D.I.A Resource Exchange
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Before posting, be sure to read the forum rules carefully. This section outlines the guidelines for posting and commenting in the forum.
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If you are new to the community, head over to the "Introduce Yourself" section to say hello and tell us a little bit about yourself.
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If you have an E.D.I.A-related issue or challenge you are dealing with in your classroom, share it in the "E.D.I.A in our classrooms" section to get support and advice from other community members.
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If you are looking to share or exchange E.D.I.A-related resources, check out the "E.D.I.A Resource Exchange" forum. This section is dedicated to sharing and exchanging resources related to E.D.I.A in education.
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When posting or commenting in the forum, be respectful and mindful of others. The E.D.I.A community is committed to creating a safe and inclusive space for all members.
Third Stop- Resources
The RESOURCES section has three sub-pages: Books and Scholarly Papers, Websites, and Videos. These pages will provide a wealth of curated additional E.D.I.A source information to get you started on your deeper dive into the topics. One of the topics is land acknowledgements and decolonization.
Fourth Stop- Video Quiz
The VIDEO QUIZ web page acts as a summative assessment activity. The video quizzes incorporate scenarios and questions that include opportunities for reflection and will encourage you to actively engage with the content and apply it to your own context. The videos will ask multiple choice questions that prompt reflection on your prior knowledge and experiences and ask you to connect the new information to your existing knowledge.
At the end of the quiz, you will receive feedback on your responses and have the opportunity to reflect on what you've learned. We hope this interactive experience helps you become a more informed and effective educator when it comes to promoting EDIA in your classroom.
NOTE: The video quizzes will best work on a desktop computer or laptop.
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Click Continue to start the Video Quiz.
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The video will play, asking you to place yourself into the role of a teacher who is facing a challenge related to a E.D.I.A topic.
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The video will stop at key points and ask you to interact with a multiple choice question.
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Make your selection by clicking the answer and then clicking the "select", or choose to skip for now.
5. After you have made your selection, the video will discuss which answer may have been the ideal choice and why
6. Continue watching the video and engaging with the questions as you are prompted
7. The last question is an open-ended reflection question designed to allow you to reflect on what you've learned. Click Save.
8. At the end of the video you can choose to review or submit your answers.
9. After you click submit, you will see a confirmation screen letting you know your score. Either click Done to submit, or choose to take the quiz again.
The results of the video quiz will be used to inform our research on the effectiveness of our site content and how we can improve it to better meet your needs.
We want to assure you that your privacy will be strictly maintained and your individual responses will be kept confidential. The data collected will be analyzed in aggregate to help us make informed decisions about how to improve our resources and support educators in promoting E.D.I.A. in classrooms and schools.
Last Stop- Exit Survey
The SURVEY page will contain a Likert scale survey for you to measure the relevance of our website content, a self-assessment of knowledge gained, and feedback on the relevance of the content. There will also be an open question for you to provide suggestions, questions, and other thoughts and comments.
BC’s Curriculum. (n.d.). Core competencies. Government of British Columbia. Retrieved April 15, 2023, from https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/competencies
BC’s Curriculum. (n.d.). Positive personal and cultural identity. Government of British Columbia. Retrieved April 15, 2023, from https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/competencies/personal-and-social/positive-personal-and-cultural-identity
Cazden, C., Cope, B., Fairclough, N., Gee, J., Kalantzis, M., Kress, G., Luke, A., Luke, C., Michaels, S., Nakata, M., as the New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60-92. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.66.1.17370n67v22j160u
Crosslin, M. (2021). Self-mapped learning pathways: Theoretical underpinnings and practical course design for individualized learning. Current Issues in Education, 22(1 (Sp Iss). Retrieved April 15, 2023 from https://cie.asu.edu/ojs/index.php/cieatasu/article/view/1900
Kaltura. (n.d.) Welcome to kaltura.org: Home of the kaltura open source community. Retrieved April 15, 2023, from https://www.kaltura.org/
Krownapple, J., & Cobb, F. (2019, November 12). Belonging Through a Culture of Dignity: Keys to Successful Implementation. Mimi & Todd Press, Inc.
Murf.AI. (n.d.) AI enabled, Real people’s voices. Retrieved April 15, 2023 from https://murf.ai/
Schunk, D. H. (2012). Learning theories: An educational perspective (6th ed.). Pearson.